Intrada Soundtrack Forum

June 01, 1999

They Died With Their Boots On
Max Steiner
Conducted by William T. Stromberg
Moscow Symphony Orchestra
Marco Polo 8.225079
25 Tracks Total Time 70:07

They Died With Their Boots On is not my favorite Steiner western score. That honor remains a tie between Silver River and Rocky Mountain, two from the fifties. But it has one thing in common with those two. Errol Flynn. After Bogart he’s my favorite Warner Brothers player.

They Died With Their Boots On is still one terrific score. A lot of people like the Steiner music in Warner melodramas and soaps, the Bette Davis movies. I’ve always preferred his westerns. He started with one early in the thirties - Cimarron. And there are lots more of ‘em. Virginia City, The Oklahoma Kid, The Searchers, Dodge City, Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, The Hanging Tree, The Charge At Feather River. Many others. He even did a great one at the end of his career in the sixties - A Distant Trumpet.

Steiner was behind a lot of the Flynn movies. Korngold got the famous Flynn costume pictures, Captain Blood, Adventures Of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk. Even the ones a step down, like Elizabeth And Essex and Prince And The Pauper. But Steiner got all the westerns.

They Died With Their Boots On comes from 1941. Interestingly, there isn’t quite as strong a main theme as in some of those other movies. It’s actually the love theme for Custer’s wife, or "Libby’s Theme", that seems the strongest Steiner tune. A marching melody used during General Custer’s actual lifetime, known as Garry Owen, makes a number of appearances. So do many authentic civil war melodies. If there’s a musical identity it’s the interpolations of familiar tunes within original material. Much of it even shows up verbatim in other Steiner scores.

That all said, this new Marco Polo recording is a celebration. Possibly the best of their great ongoing series to date. It’s a superb recreation. Great sound and terrific playing. A real keeper.

There are several masterful moments. Conductor William Stromberg caught them all. Anyone who has seen the picture will remember that final parting scene between Flynn and his favorite leading lady Olivia Dehavilland. They did a lot of pictures together. Captain Blood, Adventures Of Robin Hood, Dodge City, Charge Of The Light Brigade, others. But this was their last pairing. The final scene they have really stays with you. And Steiner gave it one of his very best melodies. Bugle calls bring Custer to attention, then the melody shares his and Libby’s last moment. It’s a richly passioned line that shows up often in the score, but after that tender parting scene Steiner mostly lets go of it.

One of the stand out features of this recording is the depth of the sound. A Steiner trademark (or perhaps a Warner trademark) was the rich and edged sound of the trombones. This album captures that crisp and distinctive sound throughout. A real treat.

Another strong characteristic of this particular score is a high, rapid musical signature for the Sioux. Usually heard in the upper woodwinds, piccolos frequently, it is a motif that Steiner liked to employ when scoring scenes with Indians, be it this movie or many others. The Moscow players catch just the right balance of shrill fierceness and fluid dexterity.

Unquestionably, a massive moment for Steiner in this one was the Little Big Horn finale. What a piece of music! Bugle calls, of course. Rousing flurries of woodwinds. A rattle of drums. The fierce Sioux motif. And above it all, the exhilarating strains of "Garry Owen". It’s a musical "tour-de-force", descriptive enough that one can pretty much follow the events without benefit of picture. Steiner frequently wrote extremely busy music and this is a pretty good example. His music was actually quite difficult to play. And this is certainly a chance to hear why. The masterful performance of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra is, thankfully, up to the task.

Perhaps dated now, but every studio once seemed to have their own "sound". Warners certainly did. Being able to preserve some of that with today’s technological gains is worthy of praise. Stromberg and crew have done just that.

It sure whets my appetite to think what William Stromberg, manuscript reconstructionist John Morgan, and the rest of the Marco Polo folk would do if somehow the entire repertoire of Steiner horse operas suddenly fell upon their plates. For now, this one will suffice. And then some.

June 08, 1999

Visions Of Eight
Composed And Conducted By Henry Mancini
RCA 74321664952
12 Tracks Total Time 33:40

Awhile ago I wrote about the extraordinary neglect of Henry Mancini music on CD. Especially all those classic RCA titles from the sixties and seventies. Albums prepared with concepts, continuity. Albums with fabulous engineering. People don't realize it but Mancini was a pioneer in early stereo recording, in musician seating, size of ensemble, microphone placement and such way back at the beginning. He scored his music, fashioned solos, added any combination of players to take advantage of commercial recording techniques. A real legend.

Anyway, something happened.

RCA (in Spain, but who’s counting?) has taken aim. Their target? Those classics from the sixties and seventies.

Bullseye. They must've been reading here.

First they gave us The Big Latin Band, Experiment In Terror, Mancini ‘67, The Party, Two For The Road, High Time, Combo. A very short time later we've been given Arabesque, Darling Lili, Gunn, The Great Race, What Did You Do In The War Daddy?, that fabulous 1976 album he called The Cop Show Themes and...

Visions Of Eight.

Why champion Visions Of Eight when there's so many great ones to spotlight? I can actually tell you in one word --- no particular reason.

Okay, one reason is the actual recording on "Salute To The Olympians". I noticed it in 1973 on one of those noisy black platters called a "record" - just a strapping college kid who never imagined it’d be on a quiet little silver disc someday. And it sounds just fabulous on CD. Something about how Mancini actually captured, even back then, the feeling of trombones on the right, French horns on the left, and trumpets smack in the center. You can imagine right where they’re seated. On a piece this rousing it makes a difference.

It's recorded twice, once running just a minute with pretty basic harmony, once as a finale with more meat to it. In the finale the harmonies reprised from the first version, just over a minute in, dramatically become striking, unique. Heard against the main melody it was always a favorite Mancini moment.

There are a lot of highlights. The theme Mancini wrote for Ludmilla (the gymnast) is one of his most touching. Not a huge gesture, but a tender, haunting, even sad one. Very minor key. Mancini even plays piano. When ready he lets the strings soar a moment, then lifts all with a trademark French horn solo playing a countermelody.

The film (I'm actually one of those two dozen people who saw the film when it opened) was odd. Eight rather famous directors from many nations each capturing a segment of the 1972 Olympiad, telling eight views of human competition, struggles against the laws of physics and nature, endurance, that sort of thing. Not too many of these turned out interesting for some reason. Often Mancini seemed the only one attuned to the glory, the struggle, those inner reflections, the heartbreak of defeat and so forth. Maybe too many head honchos and not enough peons. Something like that anyway.

Mancini’s music for "The Race" mixes elements of a simple and happy allegro with a moving trumpet solo line, tossing the fun with the serious line together at will. A great piece that rips to a finish, then slams into the short version of the afore-mentioned salute. A goosebump moment for any Mancini fan.

The cue titled "Pretty Girls" was also a strong listenable piece. Over a soft-rocking rhythm the melody is stated by unison trumpets, then unison trombones. French horns enter the scene, all the brass take off on their own, the music climaxes on a trademark Mancini chord. Another highlight.

Mancini often doesn't get taken seriously by fans feeding on albums by Horner, Korngold, Goldsmith, Broughton, Williams, Zimmer, you name it. Mancini always left off the serious music, the "background" stuff. He preferred recording all of the "source" stuff. Except when he accidentally wrote Lifeforce and had no source to choose from and he ended up making a real score album.

With that in mind, like numerous other Mancini albums, this score may not be for fans of the hardcore symphonic over-the-top complicated "Hollywood" super spectacular adrenaline pumping soundtracks. The music's probably too tuneful. Hummable even.

But for anyone who likes just really good music, well-crafted, recorded, played --- this one's for you.

And me.

June 15, 1999

Cleopatra
Composed By Trevor Jones
Conducted By Geoffrey Alexander
London Symphony Orchestra
Contemporary Media Recordings CMR-1999-1
10 Tracks Total Time 55:01

Trevor Jones is rather unique amongst hardcore movie music fans. He burst into the spotlight early in the eighties providing some original material for the mostly - classical - music Excalibur soundtrack. It remains to this day one of the single most requested (and still unreleased) film soundtracks. The classical music gets the most attention but people do seem to know about the original music too. That’s one really big want.

Jones did get an album to The Dark Crystal. It's one of the most requested titles once on vinyl but not yet on CD. That’s a second big want.

That same year (1983) Jones provided a magnificent and fresh sounding score for Nate And Hayes, an okay adventure with Tommy Lee Jones and Michael O'Keefe. It got a lot of queries from those who saw it. Queries in vain though - no album whatsoever. That’s three for three.

Then suddenly Trevor Jones started getting all sorts of albums released as CDs took over. Angel Heart, Runaway Train, Mississippi Burning, Dominick And Eugene, Sea Of Love, Bad Influence, In The Name Of The Father, Labyrinth, a bunch of others. Intrada even got into the act with Crisscross.

Somehow they didn't catch on with the hardcore folk. Sometimes jazzy, numerous times electronic, none of them rose to the symphonic sweep and personalized harmonic vocabulary that made the early works so exciting.

Later he created some of the most popular soundtrack music of the nineties with his evocative Last Of The Mohicans. (Due to time and late editing decisions Randy Edelman had a thankless job writing non-thematic additional music.)

Refusing to have a style pinned down Trevor Jones did pictures as varied as Cliffhanger, Brassed Off, Gulliver’s Travels, For Roseanna and G.I. Jones. Each sounded different. And recently he got symphonic juices flowing with Dark City, Desperate Measures and Merlin.

Now - with Cleopatra - I'm hoping Trevor Jones has the attention of those afore-mentioned fans. He deserves it. Here’s music with signature harmonic fingerprints, rich symphonic orchestrations, and a plethora of unique, fresh sounds to spare. And happily the ten cues are long, developed.

The main Cleopatra theme reminds me of his earlier Mohican theme, deceptively simple, reliant on similar strong chords, though with much more rhythmic interest here. The sounds in this score also reveal a number of unusual touches via ethnic percussion, the Shawm, an EWI (electronic woodwind instrument) and some complex electronics. Weaving in and out of the London Symphony Orchestra these colors are a treat.

The score shows a side of Jones not often encountered. His action music, primarily during the lengthy tracks "Rome Decrees" and "The Roman Forum", is both propulsive and imposing. The latter cue has a particularly strong and sweeping conclusion to it. Jones imparts a sense of power, probably obvious given the subject at hand, but also keeps his unique harmonic sense alive. And in that best tried and true formula he even lets his brass occasionally sound those ancient sounding fourths and fifths, loud and triumphant. When he gets into it there is also a ferocity in the material, usually in energetic jabs from the brass. And always the interesting colors close at hand.

There's another really outstanding feature. It's especially noble considering the overall length of the material. Jones has created a strong main theme and uses it in variants throughout, giving a melodic sensibility to his aggressive action music, or suggesting it in quieter moments. It even swells on occasion amidst other material. But he doesn't over use it. It's a theme that never wears out its welcome.

This last observation provides one of the score's strongest moments. Maybe the strongest. When all is said and done Jones brings his theme back, the lean melody, the familiar chords, the rhythm. In the guise that began it all. It's welcome, powerful. One of the more imposing finales to come in awhile.

I heard rumors that Jones was creating his own label, sorta like Lalo Schifrin perhaps.

Maybe now we can have Excalibur, The Dark Crystal and Nate And Hayes too. I'm not greedy. I just like good music.

June 22, 1999

Underrated, Obscure Scores - Part One
Composed by Various Underrated,
Obscure and Unknown Composers
Conducted by Some of the Same Folks

Something different. Obscure scores on CD. Sometimes little projects by highly visible heavyweights. Sometimes little projects by low profile composers, unknown composers. Scores not discussed much. CDs apparently in few collections.

But CDs that should be.

It’s no secret I’m a fan of warm Americana, of intimate, reflective scores. Horner and Field Of Dreams. Goldsmith and The Waltons. Broughton and Carried Away. Bernstein and Mockingbird. Many others. So the following titles mostly fit right in. But not all. Anyway, they're some of my favorites. And if I get you to try one on your next trip to the flea market, the local used bin... you'll be better off. Really.

Take Three Wishes. The composer is Cynthia Millar, often a player (Ondes Martenot) for Elmer Bernstein. Here she conducts her own score. It’s a 1995 movie directed by Martha Coolidge that starred Patrick Swayze. Not particularly successful. But what happened to Millar as a composer?

Here she created a rich and evocative score for a fantasy-ish picture, using an abundance of string and woodwind colors within her full orchestra. Brass are saved for key moments. Percussion players didn’t get invited. But oboe, clarinet, flute - they get solos in abundance. So do the viola, the cello. Millar learned much from Bernstein. His voice is present in the harmony, the colors. But Millar has a strong melodic sense, and a magnificent command of intimate writing for a large group. There are big moments. I like "Monster" a lot, with a rather dramatic use of brass. But what lingers is the rich tapestry of woodwind and string color. These are large groups too. The woodwinds include oboe and English horn, clarinets, flutes, alto flute, piccolo and so forth. Plus that large string section. This is one really pretty score.

Varese Sarabande has happily provided a plethora of music that fills this bill. Amongst mainstream fare they've issued quiet releases like The Stars Fell On Henrietta, also from 1995. This time music by David Benoit. It’s a depression-era story set in Texas with Robert Duvall, produced by Clint Eastwood. Easily a terrific setting for Aaron Copland come Bruce Broughton music. Copland lines, Broughton harmonies. And pianistic colors evoking Horner. What a trilogy of inspiration to draw from. Benoit brings into it a superb sense of transparency amidst the orchestral fabric. Solos abound from strings, French horn, banjo, piano, light percussion. And throughout a pair of strong themes. There’s an overall motion via gentle but forward-moving rhythms in the orchestra. Benoit increases the density at times ("The Big Boom") but reflective, melodic passages dominate. His "End Credits" summarizes all with both themes getting their say. Comments from the banjo, nearby the rhythms, everything closing in unison. A haunting, beautiful, Americana-tinged, but saddened work. Benoit conducts.

Not so quiet, but certainly melodic, is a picture burdened with the title The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain. Makes sense when you see it. This one's scored by Stephen Endelman. The year is - you guessed it - 1995. (These are all coincidences I think.)

The score has a lot of England in it, of Wales. There are bagpipes, flute, a pennywhistle. There's a large orchestra. And a choir. One neat touch is the use of two alternating themes, one slowish and imposing, the other lilting and rhythmic, both from similar motivic and harmonic elements. The score gains strength from the insistence of these two lines, working, growing, like the threadbare storyline. There are powerful moments, like "Johnny's Barrow", with chorus and orchestra combining in one massive reading of the imposing theme. It’s neat how Endelman keeps the pace moving with his percussion, scored crisply, nothing complex. Another nice color is a frequent use of muted trumpets. A third melodic idea, richly scored for strings, evokes the landscape. Sometimes (as in "Lovers On The Mountain") Endelman ventures out of his primary thematic territory, but only briefly. Those original two main themes keep coming back. Most welcome is the lilting variant in "Villagers Begin Building". And there's a strong version of Endelman’s imposing theme during "The Rain". Upon close scrutiny one finds there’s actually a wealth of different ideas buried within the overall work, but the strength of those two primary themes is what lingers.

Visible, but not in enough spotlight, is Lennie Niehaus and his warm, sensitive score for Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood’s heavily praised western triumph. Not a big, expansive kind of score. It’s gentle, often deceptively simple. There’s an orchestra but Niehaus (who became an expert orchestrator for Jerry Fielding) keeps it largely in check. Niehaus is also known to some as a frequent composer for the symphonic band medium. With Unforgiven he treats the complex story (about killing) with darkened but not broad strokes, keeping his music in the background. Sharing time, and another plus, is a haunting theme written by Clint Eastwood. Given the size of the many projects these two have collaborated on, I'm amazed there’s not more attention to Niehaus. Plus, this one’s not from 1995, it's from 1992.

As I get into this I realize there are endless examples. I'll catch some more in a later writing. Maybe by then I won’t have to include Michael Small, Terence Blanchard, Adrian Johnston...

June 29, 1999

Underrated, Obscure Scores - Part Two
Composed by Various Underrated,
Obscure and Unknown Composers
Conducted by Some of the Same Folks

Continuing a topic. Scores that few people seem to seek out, talk about.

First off, I had mentioned David Benoit. Someone asked if I knew anything more about him. I looked around and found his output was in jazz. Quite a few albums. His orchestral film score (The Stars Fell On Henrietta) certainly obscured that fact. It was fun learning something.

That's what this topic is about. Maybe the next time you're hunting around those used bins, passing up these little gems, you might pause and take a second look. The titles mentioned are around, some in print, some not. But they’re easy enough to dig up at the moment.

First up this time, a real puzzler - Terence Blanchard. Not exactly obscure. He's easy to find in the jazz bins, a trumpeter of the highest order. He also writes powerful symphonic music. And he scores the Spike Lee movies. That’s a rather high profile, so why the lack of attention around here?

Take Clockers. This one's a real masterpiece. (I'm a fan of Spike Lee movies.) It's about a killing in "the projects". There's a confessor but the cop on the case suspects someone else. It's potent stuff. Blanchard writes in his fullest symphonic idiom, but his work is dark, grim, powerful. There's an emphasis on lower strings and brass. Color and harmony take precedence over melody. Blanchard fashioned a brief descending line, his theme of sorts. But center stage are rich and brooding chord progressions. They're underneath the theme, sometimes by themselves. Not just minor chords, as might be expected, but major chords as well.

This is one rich symphonic score. The main idea shows up in strong fashion during track 2 ("Strike Packs Up") where Blanchard lets solo trumpet weave above those rich chords. During track 8 ("In The Joint/Rocco Grills Strike") the trumpet soars, and the chords stay with it all. One highlight is track 14 ("Tyrone’s Story"), a turning point in the movie. It's a powerful cue, dark and imposing, with a lot of trombone color.

The score comes down to the last track, a lengthy 7-minute piece, masterfully worked out with the brief theme, the rich chords, the thick low trombone and string sound. And a haunting and unforgettable conclusion with an ascending (instead of the often descending) line for trumpet. To me, a perfect example of closing what is a powerhouse score. It was easily one of the richest of 1995. But I don’t recall much discussion about it. What’s up with that?

Blanchard has some other soundtracks available. You can sample Eve's Bayou, Sugar Hill and Malcolm X. And sample you should.

While you’re digging be sure to take a chance on Jude. This one’s by Adrian Johnston. It dates from 1996, comes from England, and features Kate Winslet in the cast. The soundtrack is assembled in a rather elaborate manner, in large chunks of material, sectioned by locale. The scoring hovers near that haunting Celtic sound, but not completely. Delicately woven into the mix are gentle colors from accordion to fiddle. The primary theme is a haunting waltz, showing Johnston to be an expert with saddened material.

Often the music features solo colors, an oboe here, a violin there. There is always a strong sense of harmony present too. This qualifies as chamber scoring. The material has a fragmentary nature, but this isn't a liability, it’s an asset. These are often wisps of material. Brief ideas. Dialogues between bassoon and oboe. The cautious use of the orchestra, the gentle harmonies, all add to the character.

There are a myriad of colors and styles. For example, a section subtitled "At Melchester" features strings, such as with the beautifully scored track "Rejection". Another nice sound is that of two bassoons in duet during "The Parade". Dotted about are pieces reflective of the places in the film, the journeys. Choral music for the cathedral by Orlando Gibbons, music by Handel, Bach. It’s appropriate and welcome.

One overall strong point is a judicious use of the main waltz theme. It comes and goes, never around too long to wear out a welcome, never far enough away to get forgotten. When it appears, in tracks like "Return To Marygreen" and "Beautiful Days" it's memorable. A neat variant, with a lilt and swell in the orchestra, even shows up during "Quarry". All is concluded during a lengthy closing track "For The Last Time". The waltz appears, as does rich material fragmented from other parts of the score.

For those paying attention Johnston also scored the well-known Welcome To Sarajevo in 1997.

In a totally different direction, a rather exciting and commanding score for a new picture titled One Last Flight. The composer is Todd Hayen. Listeners that scrutinize end credits may have noticed his contribution to the hit film Under Siege, otherwise scored by Gary Chang. I refer to the neat part, the majestic brass fanfare material. Hayen has a number of other smallish features to his credit. His profile is hidden behind an absence of recordings. Hopefully this one for One Last Flight will attract some attention.

Recorded by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra the music is extremely well recorded. Crisp, dynamic, exciting. And what’s refreshing is - and this is really unusual - it's melodic. Sweepingly so. Trumpets in unison carry a tune that soars, right up there with characters Gramps and 12-year old Ray.

While the entire orchestra is featured the brass tend to get the real workout. Low brass on ostinato-like rhythms, high brass soaring on themes. An abundance of action material keeps the brief album moving forward. Sometimes aggressive (though not overly so) the music is imposing, the kind that often carries a scene. And always the theme rising and falling throughout.

Included as a bonus are two selections from other Hayen work, The Legend Of Pirate’s Point and Apparition. Both are miniature masterpieces for orchestra, furthering proof that Hayen should be in the middle of soundtrack conversations once in awhile.

I'll step back into this topic from time to time. One thing's for sure. While the film music industry is dominated by name heavyweights, great music flows from pens of busy composers waiting in the shadows, ready to pounce. With composers like the above, the industry is that much richer.